Bible Study - Genesis 1:1,2

Genesis 1:1, 2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”

 

This shows the creation and the power of the Almighty God. Before all these were made, there was the word of God. John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”. This word is Jesus Christ. John 1:14 – “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”.

God created the heavens and the earth. Heavens is plural. That means it is not only one heaven, you can expect different types of heaven. In the book of Psalm 102:25 it says, “In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands”. There are people who have asked me whether there is only one heaven or not? That time I started thinking about it and then when I read Genesis 1:1, I wanted to explore more, since each and every word in the Bible has meaning. So according to studies from sources and the verses, there are 3 heavens. 

God is in the 3^rd heaven, since in 1^st and 2^nd heaven described in the Bible, you can’t find God. Of course the Spirit of God is there everywhere. God is seated in the Heaven and we can find it in Psalm 2:4 “The one enthroned in heaven laughs”. Now in which heaven God is seated? Definitely he will be seated at the highest one. 1 Kings 8:27 say, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven cannot contain you”. This heaven is termed as “Paradise” where Paul was taken according to 2 Corinthians 12: 2 – “I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the 3^rd heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know – God knows”.

The 2^nd heaven is referred to the outer space. It is where the sun, moon and the stars reside. The Bible mentions about this in Mathew 24: 29, Deuteronomy 17: 3 and Jeremiah 8: 2 are some. “They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshipped”. God created all the objects in this heaven. Scientists are exploring new objects in this heaven every day. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” – Psalm 19:1. Just a word of God, still now heavenly objects are being created. How powerful is God’s word? Same God loves you and me.

The 1^st heaven is the atmosphere around the earth, which is the immediate sky. In Genesis 1:14 (KJV) it says, “And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs; and for seasons, and for days, and years”. It consists of the clouds and the atmosphere, until we come to the stars. In describing the rain that brought the flood on Noah’s time in Genesis 7:11, it says, “On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened”. Again it is mentioned to confirm the 1^st heaven in Genesis 7:19 – “They (water) rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered”.

There is the worldly finding from NASA as the world came from a “Big Bang”. According the Bible teachers, yes it has come a billion years ago. It was created by the word of God. That word of God is the Big Bang. The proof is, the bible mentions about how the world ends. The world’s end is mentioned in Revelation 16: 17-21 “The 7^th angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, it’s done. Then there came flashes of lightning, rumbling, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into 3 parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every Island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people.” If God can end the world with a Bang, he is the one who made the world with a Bang. According to the NASA findings, the age of the world is more than millions of years. Bible scholars have found out through the scriptures that, yes the world was formed millions of years. Even the earth was formed millions of years back. Then what was the earth for? You can find in the next verse – Genesis 1:2.

2^nd verse explains about darkness covering the earth. Scholars teaches us that this was the time when Lucifer, the Satan rebelled against God and was thrown out of the heaven. They further teach us that initially Earth was made to put Satan inside it. Earth was made for the fallen Angel. “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee” – Ezekiel 28: 18. That is the reason why Satan told Jesus to bow before him to get everything as it is his property. “The devil took him (Jesus) to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. All this I give you he said, if you will bow down and worship me” – Mathew 4: 8, 9. 

Just the first 2 verse of Bible contains an encyclopaedia of things to study. This proves how great our God is. This great powerful God, left his glory, came to the Earth and became as an ultimate sacrifice for our sin to make us free. How do you respond to it? Would you say yes to Lord?

Prayer

Loving Heavenly Father, Lord you created the heavens and the earth by a word. You are the creator of everything. Thank you Lord for blessing me with the salvation and forgiving my sins. Thank you for dying for me on the cross, leaving your Heavenly greatness. Please cast out all the diseases and curses from me and my family and help me to be your vessel to bring your Kingdom on this earth. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Keep Quiet

You can see around the world some people who do not stop talking. They talk about any topics and anything and are good in their social skills. They attract people towards them. So for them, it will be like inside a jail if they are in a quiet place for some time. For me, I appreciate those people since I don’t have a social skill to have a communication to anyone and everyone. 

I have seen the teenagers talking on the phone to their classmates or friends. Even in adults I have noticed this talking in phone for long hours. I use to wonder what they are talking about this much time. Are they talking about the International peace treaty or anything related to nuclear problems? To tell in simple words, you can’t describe what they talk because that will be so filthy and evil lustful, and they describe it as flirting. A way of Adultery which is described in the Bible.

It is same in the case of a person who talks too much. Most of the things he talks will be gossip. As God clearly warns about Adultery and Gossiping. 

“A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much” – Proverbs 20: 19

Instead of talking and spending time with people and gossiping, God wants his children to spend time with him. God wants us to do our duty, be quiet and love everyone. Loving everyone doesn’t means to be with them all the time. When you walk with God, the change you will have in your life speaks about you. You will be quiet, doesn’t mean you won’t talk, but you talk when needed, not disturbing others. More of your time you spend with God and the time you spend with men, you listen to them, talk to them without any gossip (Be careful in what you talk).

“The tongue has the power of life and death” – Proverbs 18: 21.

I have seen Pastors and Evangelists who spend more time with God than man, who are very powerful in their ministry. For being powerful in a spiritual life, you need to have the power of the Holy Spirit, which you get only when you spend time with God.

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet lie: You should mind you own business and work with your hands” – 1 Thessalonians 4: 11.

When you stop the simple gossip talk, you will have time to think about what you talk, control it and be a role model to others. 

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” – James 1: 19.

Watchman

Watchman is a term used to a person who takes care of a building or property, mostly at night. Why he is there is to keep the property or building safe from any outside attacks.

I have seen people who own apartments and are staying away from the place giving extra money to the watchman to take care of their premises on their absence. Since I am staying near to an airport and Aeronautical companies, I can see lots of watchmen placed in different places near the compound. They will be standing and seeing everywhere in a higher place, that when we go through our roads, we can see them. They are there to give alarm to the company if any outside interference happens inside the compound. In short, they are there to keep the people who are working inside safe.

Almighty God compares his servant as a watchman. That means the protection of the people depends on how careful the pastor or the evangelist is. The salvation of the people depends on how the watchman’s work is according to the Holy Spirit. Watchman should understand the words from Holy Spirit and should have compassion to let the people know about their salvation. It is the duty of the watchman to bring souls to the presence of God.

“For there will be a day when watchmen on the hills of Ephraim call out, Arise and let us go to Zion, To the Lord our God” – Jeremiah 31:6

But the job of watchman is not an easy one. He should give an account of all the people in his area. In the book of Ezekiel, God explains it in detail. If the watchman tells the good news to the people and if they reject it, he will not be counted for their sin and blood. But on the other way, if he does not tell the news of salvation and if anyone of the people dies, the watchman will be accountable for the person’s blood without salvation.

If you are doing the job for God as a pastor or an evangelist or a Sunday school teacher, kindly read Ezekiel 33 to know how important your job is with respect to the souls around you. God bless you.

“Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood” – Ezekiel 33:2  -6

Your Tongue

Recently I read about a sad story of a man who ended his life. Before ending his life he wrote about the events happened in his life from the time he was born. Since his birth was unexpected (unexpected pregnancy), his mother hated him. From the infant age onwards she uses to shout at him for everything. Any problem in any place she use to point to him and will use abuse words on him. So the regret of having parents who treats him like a loser made him actually a loser. In all the walks of life he had to face discouragement and more than that he use to take all the blame, what so happened in his surroundings. That made him more discouraged and finally he ended up his life. 

In this story, everything started because the person’s mother was not able to control her tongue. “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness” – James 3:9. The tongue has the power to take life or make life. God created the world and everything through his word. “Although small, the tongue has great power” – James 3: 5.

Even if you are a dedicated person of God, if you are carelessly using your tongue, you deceive your faith and your God. A servant of God means he is an ambassador of God and he represents God among people. If he is not using the tongue properly, he is putting down the name of God and more over he is disrespecting God and the position he is in. “Even if we seem religious, if we do not control the tongue, we are deceiving ourselves and our religion is vain” – James 1: 26.

I request the brothers and sisters who are reading this message to be very careful in using your tongue. Respect God and his words.

Grow your Hair

In the Bible, Old Testament Judges, we study about Samson. From Judges 13 onwards we can see the life history of this Jewish person who was called by God to be the leader and Judge. When he was a boy itself, God blessed him with the Spirit. Judges 13: 24, 25. But in the next chapter we see his weakness exposed even though he was a man of God. Even though God commanded them not to marry outside Jews, he wanted to marry a Philistine woman. Satan found an opportunity to get into this person and he cashed it in. 

 

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” – Mathew 26: 41.

Satan will have different ways to conquer you. He might make you to take decision suddenly and destroy you (suicide). But most of the times, he will slowly take one by one step to destroy you. God gave strength to Samson to protect Jews, but he used it for his own pleasure. He went and fought against the Philistines for getting his weak desire. These were the steps devil took to put him under. 

When devil understood Samson can be tamed, it sent Delilah to him for temptation and finally Samson failed in it. The way Satan did it; you can read it in Judges 16. Delilah did not leave Samson without letting him tell his strength. His strength was his hair and once the enemy understood it, they shaved it fully. 

Same thing happens to many one of us. When we walk with God, he gives us his Spirit and guides us to do supernatural things. But even then Satan will try to get into us. Once we open a window for the devil, he will search for our weakness to know our strength. If we give room for him he will find our strength and destroy it to finish us.

Carefully read Judges 16: 21, 22 – “The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. But his hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.” 

Yes, Samson’s strength was his hair and once the hair started to grow, Samson understood his strength has come back. Devil can take away our strength and make us weak. But God will give us a second chance to show our strength. The question is how you are going to use the new strength. Here in the life of Samson, he used the strength to kill all the Philistines who came to see his death and in the process he himself got died. 

Our strength may not be physical. But when it is gone, go to your basics. Ask God to change your situation and surrender unto him. Once he gives you the strength back, instead of trying to take revenge on the enemy, use the strength to do things which you are supposed to do. Use it to glorify the Lord. If your strength is music, sing and help someone to sing for the glory of God. If your strength is in doing a specific work, do it and help others to do, and make efforts to bring them to Christ.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” – Colossians 3: 23, 24.